Posted on 05 Dec 2022
Inventories of the five major carbon steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate held by the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey resumed declining during November 24-30 after the short-lived rise over the prior week, with the volume falling 0.8% on week to 4.3 million tonnes.
Among the total, inventories of rebar accumulated by 1.8% on week, while the volume of other major steel items decreased by varying degrees during the same period, the survey showed.
China's finished steel output recovered somewhat this week, as some domestic steel mills resumed production after completing maintenance. Over November 24-30, the surveyed steel mills' total output of the five products reached 9.25 million tonnes, up 0.6% on week after the continuous decrease over the prior four weeks.
Although the central government has introduced a series of measures to boost economic growth and support the recovery of the real-estate sector, sentiment in the domestic steel market has not seen a significant improvement so far and fundamentals remain weak.
Steel consumption from end-users has softened gradually with the widespread rain and snow and falling temperatures in most regions of China this week. At the same time, many domestic traders and end-users were not active in building up stocks in the winter season, given the relatively high steel prices, Mysteel Global learned.
Mysteel's other survey showed that over November 24-30, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking declined to 134,200 tonnes/day, lower by another 7,334 t/d or 5.2% from the previous week.
China's finished steel prices kept rangebound this week, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, reaching Yuan 3,946/tonne ($557/t) including the 13% VAT as of November 30, inching up Yuan 6/t from one week before, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Inventories of the five steel products at commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities under Mysteel's regular survey kept stable overall during November 25-December 1 at 14 million tonnes, up 4,900 tonnes on week after sliding for seven weeks, according to the survey.
Source:Mysteel Global
